Background:The Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework was used to evaluate the volunteer telephone smoking cessation counseling follow-up program implemented as part of the inpatient Tobacco Tactics intervention in a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital.

Results:Reach: Of the 131 Veterans referred to the smoking cessation telephone follow-up program, 19% were reached 0–1 times, while 81% were reached 2–4 times. Effectiveness: Seven-day point-prevalence 60-day quit rates (abstracted from the EMR) for those who were reached 2–4 times were 26%, compared to 8% among those who were reached 0–1 times (p = 0.06). Sixty-day 24-hour point-prevalence quit rates were 33% for those reached 2–4 times, compared to 4% of those reached 0–1 times (p Conclusions:Quit rates were higher among those Veterans that had greater participation in the calls. Joint Commission standards for inpatient smoking with follow-up calls are voluntary, but should these standards become mandatory, there may be more motivation for VA administration to institute a hospital-based, volunteer telephone smoking cessation follow-up program.

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